Re: PROV-ISSUE-89 (what-entity-attributes): How do we find the attributes of an entity? [Formal Model]

Hi Satya,

Responses interleaved

On 09/06/2011 06:26 PM, Satya Sahoo wrote:
> Hi Luc,
> To clarify a few points:
> 1. In case of the provenance ontology (formal model), there are two 
> types of information resources (entities) - a class of entities (TBox 
> or part of ontology schema) and individual entities (ABox or instances 
> of an entity class).
>
> 2. There are two types of attributes - (a) attributes necessary for an 
> information resource to have to be member of a class of entities 
> (intensional definition), and (b) set of attributes associated with a 
> class of entities, but they are not necessary for an information 
> resource to be member of a class of entities
>
> Given the above points,
> > The conceptual model defines an entity in terms of an identifier and 
> a list of attribute-value pairs.
> Does this identify an "instance" entity or "class" entity?
>

"instance" indeed

e.g.:  entity(e0, [ type: "File", location: "/shared/crime.txt", 
creator: "Alice" ])


> >  It is indeed crucial for the asserter to identify the attributes 
> that have been frozen in a given entity.
> Seems to refer to "instance" entity - for those attributes that form 
> part of the intensional definition of the "class" entity.
> For example, a Toyota Corolla Car with vehicle identification number 
> "1a" will have "frozen" values of "toyota" and "corolla" for 
> attributes "manufacturing company" and "car model name". But, it can 
> have "variable" values of "ann" or "tom" for attribute "current owner".
>
Using the Provenance Abstract Syntax Notation, I could assert two 
entities (instances)

entity(e1,[ company: "Toyota", model: "Corolla"])

entity(e2,[ company: "Toyota", model: "Corolla", owner="tom"])


How do I know the attributes of each entity: company/model for e1
and company/model/owner for e2?

Cheers,
Luc


> With the above description and examples, can you please clarify your 
> point again?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Best,
> Satya
>
> On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 4:52 AM, Provenance Working Group Issue Tracker 
> <sysbot+tracker@w3.org <mailto:sysbot%2Btracker@w3.org>> wrote:
>
>
>     PROV-ISSUE-89 (what-entity-attributes): How do we find the
>     attributes of an entity? [Formal Model]
>
>     http://www.w3.org/2011/prov/track/issues/89
>
>     Raised by: Luc Moreau
>     On product: Formal Model
>
>     The conceptual model defines an entity in terms of an identifier
>     and a list of attribute-value pairs. It is indeed crucial for the
>     asserter to identify the attributes that have been frozen in a
>     given entity.
>
>     Currently, the ontology does not seem to identify these attributes.
>
>     To say that these attributes could be found by looking at all the
>     properties for this entity does not work with an open world
>     assumption.
>
>     What mechanism do we have to identify these attributes?
>
>
>
>
>
>

-- 
Professor Luc Moreau
Electronics and Computer Science   tel:   +44 23 8059 4487
University of Southampton          fax:   +44 23 8059 2865
Southampton SO17 1BJ               email: l.moreau@ecs.soton.ac.uk
United Kingdom                     http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~lavm